(urth) the Epitome
maru
marudubshinki at gmail.com
Thu Apr 7 15:20:06 PDT 2005
Chris wrote:
> Hold up a second. This interpretation of the Hierodules/Hierogrammates
> is something that I find to be surprising, which is not to say it's
> incorrect necessarily, but this was not how I was seeing things. This
> may be a straightforward error on my part; I really ought to buy an
> electronic copy of the books if one is available just to look up
> things like this.
>
> I thought that what you are calling the creation of the Hierogrammates
> was a "shaping", that is, the men of the previous universe influenced
> their development rather than created them from whole cloth. And in
> turn the Hierogrammates were influencing the humans of Severian's
> universe to return the favor. Rather than being a great sin I thought
> this was something that was supposed to elevate each in turn.
>
>> I don't know if my use of "H's" as shorthand for Hierogrammates is
>> causing
>> confusion with Hieros, or what. Anyway, to be clear, the Hieros were the
>> humans of a previous universe who caused the eventual creation of the
>> Hierogrammates. That creation was their great sin; a sin certainly in
>> the
>> eyes of the H's, but also, more importantly, in the eyes of the
>> Increate.
>
>
>> Finally, if Wolfe didn't intend the destruction of Urth and the birth of
>> Ushas to be, in a religious sense, a good thing, why did he write it
>> that
>> way? Why write it at all?
>>
>> -Roy
>
>
> Do authors intend every event they write about to be interpreted as a
> good thing? Well, that's not quite what I mean. How about: does Wolfe
> present it to us as a good thing, or is it *Severian* who presents it
> to us as a good thing? Again I think this is a shortcut to avoid
> rationally examining our reasons for thinking of the birth of Ushas to
> be a good thing. Unquestioningly accepting the value judgments of the
> narrator does not provide us with solid ground for an interpretation.
True; Severian the Lame is not an uninterested party- the New Sun
elevates him to levels of importance that couldn't help but gratify
his ego, and he could simply be embarassed at having been a little duped
into it (ref those earlier passages about how the assasin's
statements on the ship surprised him- did he really not realize what the
New Sun would do to make Urth Ushas?), and further more
he could well be retreating into that classic Christian's
apologia/defense of a God permitting or doing evil- 'Don't question
God/higher being;
rather, have ''faith'' in their actions. All is for the best.'
~Maru
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